Issue 06: Timestamp
Winter 2021
A note from the editor:
Issue 06 is a labor of love entering a tumultuous world. It also happens to be our most jam-packed issue to date, featuring 24 stories. I only wish we could gather together to celebrate the writers, artists, editors, photographers, and illustrators who made Issue 06 possible.
I want to share an excerpt from my editor’s letter with you, which I hope will help set the scene for the kind of stories and voices you can expect to read in Issue 06:
“This issue contains subtle demarcations of time throughout its pages: A presidential election punctuates a conversation between Gabriel Sosa and Danielle Abrams; Jenna Crowder examines a revolution on its tenth anniversary; Erin Genia offers a timeline of colonialist decline; and several writers note the months in which they penned their stories to contextualize their text. Taken together, the following pages offer a glimpse back at how the uneven progression of time shaped our understanding of the world around us.
During the production cycle for this issue, our volunteer editorial board grew with the additions of editor-at-large Leah Triplett Harrington and editorial assistant Maya Rubio. At the same time, writer, poet, and educator Nakia Hill tackled curating a section of Issue 06 dedicated to celebrating Black creators. Homing in on our city, she presents Revel in Black Excellence, which composes nearly half of Issue 06, as a site for Boston-based Black writers and artists to take up space and share their voices. Though the personal essays, conversations, and critical perspectives in this section cover a range of subject matter, their messages exist in dialogue with one another. We as readers are simply invited to listen and learn.”
In addition to trying to cover our printing costs, we are fundraising for several organizations offering programs and resources for empowering BIPOC members of our community. Editor Nakia Hill has selected a handful of wonderful organizations we are excited to support. We will be donating 15% of all Issue 06 sales to Mothers for Justice and Equality, Youth Guidance’s Becoming A Man Boston Program, Build Boston, and Black Market.
Issues will begin shipping on January 16. Order before January 15 to ensure your order is shipped in the first batch!
In this issue
Conversations
To be a Painting: Cicely Carew on What is Bitter and What is Sweet by Mallory A. Ruymann • Words: What Are They Good For? By Gabriel Sosa and Danielle Abrams • Sonya Clark Pulls On the Threads of History by Olivia Kiers • Cristi Rinklin’s Recent Paintings Speak of Solitude, Anxiety, and Hope by Martina Tanga • Tiny Art for Uncertain Futures: A Conversation with Eben Haines of Shelter in Place Gallery by Jameson Johnson
Features
Observation and Imagination: The Art of Evelyn Rydz by Jacqueline Houton • To the Thirteenth Floor: Thoughts on Plastics, Proximity, and Presence by Leah Triplett Harrington •
Critical Perspectives
Change With(out) a Revolution: Where Institutions Fail Us by Jenna Crowder • How Cemeteries Are Being Transformed Into Sites for Public Art by Olivia Deng • Dislodging the Cultural Infrastructure of Indigenous Peoples’ Dispossession by Erin Genia, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate
Artist Projects
Stay Safe, Stay Home: Road Text in a Time of Contagion by Alex Lukas • Blutopia by Shaka Dendy
Revel in Black Excellence: Edited by Nakia Hill
Kai Grant: A Champion of Roxbury by Margo Gabriel • Subversive Celebration: Photography of Black Joy and Healing in a Summer of Reckoning by Jonathan Rowe • Making Space for Gen Z: The Impact of Young Voices in Community Art Initiatives by Asiyah Herrera • Face to Face with Ayana Mack by Jacquinn Sinclair • Home Is a Place Called Bella by Christopher Streat • Embodying Art: The Black, Immigrant, and Queer Body on Display by slandie prinston • On Armor and Empowerment with Perla Mabel by Lex Weaver • Uprooting Truths and Painting them Boldly: In Conversation with Destiny Palmer by Elizabeth TiBlanc • Astro Returns to the Galaxies by Nakia Hill
Reviews
Wayfinding Exhibition Expands the Critical Possibilities of Historic Maps as Artists Mine Archives at the Addison Gallery by Shana Dumont Garr • A Dance Between Past and Present: Chantal Zakari’s “A Work in Progress” at Kingston Gallery by Karolina Hac • Sensing Growth in the Cracks: Beatrice Modisett at Montserrat College of Art Galleries by Lydia Gordon